Eli Manning has once again missed out on making it into the Pro Football Hall of Fame.
The longtime former New York Giants quarterback fell short of making the cut into the Hall of Fame again this year, marking his second straight time falling short as one of the 15 modern-era finalists, according to The Athletic.
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Manning is generally expected to eventually earn his way into the Hall of Fame, though the topic is often debated and there are plenty who think he shouldn’t. He currently ranks 11th in both career passing yards and career passing touchdowns in league history, and he won two Super Bowls during his 16 seasons with the Giants. The four-time Pro Bowler was the 2016 Walter Payton man of the Year, too.
Manning finished with a 117-117 overall record with the Giants, however, and he was eventually replaced by then-rookie Daniel Jones during his final season with the franchise in 2019. Manning also led the NFL in interceptions three times.
But despite the areas where he may have struggled, history is on Manning’s side. He is one of six players with multiple Super Bowl MVP awards to his name. Of that group, three were first-ballot inductees. The other two, longtime New England Patriots star Tom Brady and current Kansas City Chiefs quarterback Patrick Mahomes, are expected to be first-ballot entries once they are eligible.
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The Hall of Fame is controlled by Canton’s selection committee, which is made up of a 50-person panel of media members all selected by the Hall’s board of directors and appointed to two-year terms. Each team’s media contingent gets a representative, as does the Pro Football Writers of America organization. The last 17 spots are then filled by at-large contributors. It takes at least 80% approval to get in.
Around April 2018, a 23-year-old Giannis Antetokounmpo told Nick Friedell, then of ESPN.com, “one of my goals” is to spend his entire career with the Milwaukee Bucks.
Almost eight years later, Antetokounmpo’s partnership with the Bucks appears to have run its course. ESPN’s Shams Charania reported on Wednesday that “Antetokounmpo is ready for a new home” at the Feb. 5 trade deadline, and the Bucks “are starting to listen.”
“The writing is on the wall with Giannis,” multiple sources reportedly told Charania.
What, exactly, is that writing? A timeline of The Decade in Giannis spells it out for us: Antetokounmpo’s goal to win a second championship takes precedent over his goal to remain a member of the Bucks, and they can no longer provide him with what he wants.
Giannis Antetokounmpo is ready for a new NBA home. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)
(Patrick McDermott via Getty Images)
He has said the same since he won his first title in 2021. Which takes us back to the fall of 2020, when a looming contract extension first drove rumors about his future, which feels so … familiar. Antetokounmpo becomes eligible for another maximum contract extension in October.
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In the meantime, let us see how the past has informed Antetokounmpo’s present.
Sept. 8, 2020: The Miami Heat eliminated the Milwaukee Bucks from the 2020 NBA playoffs, winning their best-of-seven Eastern Conference semifinals series, 4-1. Antetokounmpo missed the elimination game of that series with a sprained right ankle.
Sept. 18, 2020: Antetokounmpo won a second consecutive Most Valuable Player award, joining Houston’s Hakeem Olajuwon and Chicago’s Michael Jordan as the only NBA players ever to capture the MVP and Defensive Player of the Year awards in the same season.
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Nov. 23, 2020: The Bucks acquired Jrue Holiday, pairing the All-Star and All-Defensive guard with Antetokounmpo, Khris Middleton and Brook Lopez on a championship favorite. The deal cost Milwaukee the rights to five of its first-round draft picks (2020 and 2024-27).
Dec. 9, 2020: Entering the final season of his rookie-scale contract extension, Antetokounmpo said of his deal, “I’m not focused on that. I know my agent, Alex [Saratsis], and [Bucks general manager] Jon Horst and the Bucks ownership are focusing on those discussions, but I’m just trying to focus on myself — how I can get better, how I can help my teammates get better, how can we be ready Saturday to play our first preseason game?”
Dec. 15, 2020: Facing a midnight deadline, Giannis Antetokounmpo signed a five-year, $228.2 million contract extension that included a player option for the 2024-25 season.
July 20, 2021: The Bucks captured the 2021 NBA title, winning a fourth straight game to defeat the Phoenix Suns in a best-of-seven set, 4-2. Antetokounmpo was the Finals MVP.
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Sept. 27, 2021: “Hopefully, we can give that feeling again to people,” said Antetokounmpo. “It might not be this year. Maybe it might be two years or three years down the road, but I need that feeling. I’m going to chase that feeling until my legs can’t move no more.”
May 15, 2022: Grant Williams scored a career-high 27 points, as the Boston Celtics defeated the defending champion Bucks in Game 7 of the East semifinals, 109-81.
Sept. 26, 2022: “I want to win a championship,” said Giannis. “Any way or the other I get it done, the feeling I felt, it was a nice feeling. And, you know, I kind of got jealous of Golden State, seeing them in the parade and in the ESPYs. You know that feeling now. You know what is getting stripped away from you. Hopefully God can bless us to win another one.”
April 26, 2023: The Heat ousted the Bucks from the first round of the playoffs, 4-1. Antetokounmpo missed two games of the best-of-seven series to a bruised lower back.
Sept. 27, 2023: The Bucks dealt Holiday and the rights to their first-round draft picks from 2028-30 to the Portland Trail Blazers for 33-year-old, seven-time All-Star Damian Lillard.
Oct. 2, 2023: “I gotta always look out for what’s best for me and my family, for my situation, but at the end of the day, I want to be a Milwaukee Buck for the rest of my career as long as we are winning. It’s as simple as that,” said Antetokounmpo. “What do you expect me to say? To be a Milwaukee Buck and be a loser? That’s never going to come out of my mouth.”
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Oct. 15, 2023: “I always envisioned myself to be in Milwaukee for a long time,” Antetokounmpo told Andscape’s Marc J. Spears. “And I always say that I want to play 20 years. I want to be like Tim Duncan, like Kobe [Bryant], all those guys that played with one team for a lot of years and won the championship. But at the end of the day, before loyalty, winning comes first. We are judged on winning. I’m a winner. I want to win. And the words that I say, I feel like sometimes they’ve been taken out of proportion because I’ve said these words for four or five, six years now. And I don’t know why it’s different this time. It is different when your extension comes around, when your extension is three, four years down the road and you say those words like, ‘Hey, I want my team to be the best available team and I want everybody to be on the same page,’ nobody really cares.
“But when your extension comes around, it’s like, ‘Oh, he might leave.’ No, no, no. It’s not the case. I want the best possible team. I want to wake up every single day when I come to work and know that I have a chance to win. And I want the organization to be on the same page and not to be comfortable because we won one [title]. So, what, we going to wait 15 more years to win another one? No, no, no way.”
Oct. 23, 2023: Antetokounmpo signed a three-year, $176 million contract extension that includes a player option for the 2027-28 season, recommitting to the Bucks, even when it made more financial sense for him to wait until free agency in 2025 to sign an extension.
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Oct. 24, 2023: “I had a conversation with my [brother Thanasis] … that it would make more sense for me to sign because I’d be able to — first of all, you don’t know what tomorrow holds — to have eligibility to re-sign in 2026 or I don’t remember when he told me, but that was the smartest thing to do,” said Antetokounmpo. “So I just kind of trust his thinking. But also for me, it takes kind of like focus away from that. I don’t have to think about that. I don’t need the media talks to be about my contract and if I’m going to stay, if I’m going to leave. Because I knew in my heart that I wanted to stay. … I’m committed. I’m here. And I want with my teammates to be successful and I want to win another championship.”
May 2, 2024: The Pacers eliminated the Bucks from the first round of the playoffs, 4-2. Antetokounmpo missed the entirety of the opening-round series to a strained left calf.
Feb. 19, 2025: “I don’t think that I would ever text [and ask for a trade],” Antetokounmpo told Greece’s COSMOTE TV. “I am not this kind of guy. They would have to kick me out.”
April 29, 2025: The Pacers defeated the Bucks in the first round of the playoffs, 4-1. A healthy Antetokounmpo played the entire series, averaging a 33-15-7 across 37.6 minutes per game.
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July 1, 2025: In order to sign Myles Turner to a four-year, $107 million contract, the Bucks waived and stretched the final two years of Lillard’s deal, committing to carry an annual salary of $22.5 million through the 2029-30 season for the point guard not to play for them.
August 2025: According to Charania, the New York Knicks — the one team Antetokounmpo “wanted to play” for outside of Milwaukee — called the Bucks about their star, and the two sides entered a weeks-long “exclusive negotiating window” to no avail.
The Bucks and Knicks reportedly engaged in trade talks this offseason. (Photo by Patrick McDermott/Getty Images)
(Patrick McDermott via Getty Images)
Sept. 23, 2025: “Look, I hope it never happens, but I’m expecting it to,” Antetokounmpo said of the possibility of a trade in an interview with Greece’s Sport24. “Just because you’ve given a lot to the team doesn’t mean the team won’t do what’s best for itself.”
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Sept. 29, 2025: “Guys, every summer, there’s truth to every report. It’s the same thing I’ve been saying my entire career,” Antetokounmpo said on media day. “I want to be on a team that allows me and gives me a chance to win a championship. I think it’s a disservice to basketball to not want to compete at a high level, to want your season to end in April. It’s pretty much the same. I had the same thoughts last year. I had the same thoughts two years ago. I had the same thoughts five years ago in 2020. It’s never going to change.”
Dec. 2, 2025: Antetokounmpo “cleaned up” his social media, removing a ton of Bucks-related content, though not all of it. Speculation swirled about why he had done this then.
Dec. 3, 2025: Antetokounmpo and his agent resumed “conversations with the Bucks about the two-time NBA MVP’s future — and discussing whether his best fit is staying or a move elsewhere,” Charania reported. A resolution was expected “in the coming weeks.” Meanwhile, Antetokounmpo suffered a right calf strain, which would cost him eight games.
Dec. 18, 2025: “My agent is talking to the Bucks about it,” Antetokounmpo told reporters. “He’s his own person. He can have any conversation he wants about it. That doesn’t — at the end of the day, I don’t work for my agent, my agent works for me. …
“I personally have not had the conversation with the Bucks. I’m still locked in, locked in on my teammates and most importantly locked in on me getting back healthy. …
“This is the most I’ve ever been talked about in my career. I’m in my house, with my kids and all that, and the TV is like, ‘Oh, Giannis is going to the Memphis Grizzlies, or Giannis is going to the Detroit Pistons.’ Which, hey, man, I’m not gonna lie: I’m the hottest chick in the game.”
Dec. 27, 2025: Asked if he wants to be in Milwaukee, “I’m here,” insisted Antetokounmpo, who returned from injury in 25 minutes of a victory against the Chicago Bulls. “I’m here. I’m here. Don’t ask me that question. I’m here. It’s disrespectful towards myself and my teammates. I wear that jersey every single day. Disrespectful to the organization, my coaching staff, and all the people that work hard for me to come out here and say, ‘I don’t want to be here.’ Don’t ask me that question. I’m here. I’m putting on the jersey, and as long as I’m here, I’m going to give everything I have, even in the last second of the game.”
“As of today,” he added. “You know how they say this thing about your significant other, or your wife, you always have to say, ‘As of today.’”
Jan. 13, 2026: As the Bucks were being blown out at home by a Minnesota Timberwolves team that was playing without Anthony Edwards, Milwaukee fans began to boo their team. Antetokounmpo soon responded by booing the hometown crowd, declaring, “Boo this.”
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“I was definitely booing back,” he added. “When I get booed, I boo back. I’ve been doing it all season. … I play basketball for my teammates. I play basketball for myself and my family. When people don’t believe in me, I don’t tend to be with them. I tend to be against them.”
Jan. 21, 2026: “We’re not playing hard,” he said after his team fell to 18-25. “We aren’t doing the right thing. We’re not playing to win. We’re not playing together. Our chemistry’s not there. Guys are being selfish, trying to look for their own shots instead of looking for the right shot for the team. Guys trying to do it on their own. At times, I feel like when we’re down 10, down 15, down 20, we try to make it up in one play, and it’s not going to work.”
Jan. 23, 2026: Antetokounmpo re-injured his right calf and declared himself out until “end of February, beginning of March.” The Bucks have not provided a more official timetable.
Jan. 28, 2026: The Bucks “are starting to listen” to “aggressive offers” from “several teams” for Antetokounmpo, who “is ready for a new home ahead of the Feb. 5 trade deadline,” and he has been, really, dating back to the end of last season, according to Charania.
The Cleveland Cavaliers are hosting the Los Angeles Lakers on Wednesday. And the Cavs would welcome LeBron James back this summer, too, if he wanted to join the team for his 24th NBA season, according to an ESPN report that came out hours before tip-off.
He returned to the court on Nov. 19 and has played in 28 games so far. James has started in every game he has played this season, and he’s averaging 22.4 points — his fewest since his rookie season with the Cavaliers in 2003-04 — along with 6.7 assists and 6 rebounds in 33.4 minutes per outing.
A bit more than midway through the regular season, James’ eighth with the Lakers, L.A. is 28-17 and fifth in the Western Conference.
James is amid the longest uninterrupted stay with a team of his NBA career. But his contract is set to expire at the end of this season, and the 26-year-old Dončić has become the focal point for a franchise that James helped return to the mountain top with an NBA championship after the 2019-20 season.
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If James doesn’t retire and decides to take his talents back to Cleveland for the 2026-27 season, he’d be embarking on his third stint with the Cavaliers, who famously selected the Akron, Ohio, native out of St. Vincent–St. Mary High School with the No. 1 pick in the 2003 draft.
James played for the Cavs from 2003 to ’10 and then, after winning two NBA titles with the Miami Heat as part of their “Big 3,” again from 2014 to ’18. In his second stint, he delivered Cleveland its first NBA championship in historic fashion, guiding the Cavaliers back from a 3-1 Finals deficit against a record-setting, 73-win Golden State Warriors team.
He signed with the Lakers in the summer of 2018. And for now, he is reportedly committed to the Lakers.
James stopped drinking alcohol during his rehab from sciatica and has dropped weight in an attempt to alleviate back and joint pressure and stay fresh alongside his younger teammates, as reported by ESPN on Wednesday.
The Houston Rockets will be without Steven Adams for the rest of the season.
Adams underwent season-ending surgery on his left ankle on Wednesday, according to ESPN’s Shams Charania. Adams had already been out indefinitely with the sprained ankle, though there was no timetable provided for him to return.
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Adams went down in the team’s win over the New Orleans Pelicans earlier this month. He was trying to guard Zion Williamson at the rim, but Adams immediately grabbed his left ankle after landing back down on the court from contesting a shot. He crashed to the floor and had to be helped off the court back to the locker room.
Rockets coach Ime Udoka initially said that Adams had a “severely sprained ankle,” but that nothing was broken. While specifics aren’t known, the injury was clearly something Adams wasn’t going to be able to recover from quickly.
Adams has averaged 5.8 points and 8.6 rebounds per game in Houston this season, his second with the team. Clint Capela has largely stepped in to replace Adams in his absence behind starter Alperen Şengün.
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Adams is now the second major injury the Rockets are dealing with this season. They are also without point guard Fred VanVleet, who went down with a torn ACL during a workout in September.
Houston currently holds a 28-16 record entering Wednesday night’s game with the San Antonio Spurs. While they are in fourth in the Western Conference standings, they are just two games back from the Spurs in second place.
Up 3-2 against nine-man Real Madrid and needing to score again for a goal-differential tie-breaker advantage over Marseille and Pafos, Benfica goalkeeper Anatoliy Trubin headed home a free kick in the 98th minute to send José Mourinho’s men into February’s playoffs.
The defeat affected Real Madrid as well as it finishes ninth in the table and will be a seeded team in next month’s two-legged playoffs.
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Eight teams won’t have to worry about playing Champions League soccer in February. Arsenal, Bayern Munich, Liverpool, Tottenham, Barcelona, Chelsea, Sporting and Manchester City all earned automatic places in March’s Round of 16.
The Gunners beat Kairat Almaty 3-2 on Wednesday to take the top overall spot with an 8-0-0 record. Viktor Gyökeres opened the scoring two minutes into the match and Kai Havertz helped regain the lead after 15 minutes.
Finishing behind Arsenal in the table is Bayern Munich, who earned second place after a 2-1 win over PSV, thanks to a Harry Kane 84th-minute goal.
Along with Real Madrid, Inter Milan, PSG, Newcastle, Juventus Atlético Madrid, Atalanta and Bayer Leverkusen will be the seeded teams in the playoffs. Borussia Dortmund, Olympiacos, Club Brugge, Galatasaray, Monaco, Qarabağ, Bodø/Glimt and Benfica all move on as well and will be the unseeded clubs in the next round.
Wednesday was the end of the road for 12 clubs with Marseille, Pafos, Union Saint-Gilloise, PSV, Athletic Club, Napoli, Copenhagen, Ajax, Eintracht Frankfurt, Slavia Prague, Villarreal and Kairat all seeing their European dreams come to an end.
Playoffs: Feb. 17-18 and 24-25 Round of 16: March 10-11 and 17-18 Quarterfinals: April 7-8 and 14-15 Semi-finals: April 28-29 and May 5-6 Final: May 30 (Puskás Aréna, Hungary)
Here’s how Matchday 8 played out live on Wednesday:
That report included sources telling ESPN that Bill Polian — a Hall of Fame voter and former rival of Belichick’s — led a campaign among voters that Belichick should have to “wait a year” for his Hall call, citing the New England Patriots’ Spygate and Deflategate scandals as justification.
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Then, as fury swelled, came the denial. In the hours after the news broke Tuesday, Polian “categorically” denied the report’s portrayal of his stance and insisted that he voted for Belichick. Here’s what he told Sports Illustrated’s Matt Verderame:
“That’s totally and categorically untrue,” Polian told Verderame of the ESPN report. “I voted for him.”
Then, a few hours later, came the backtrack. Well, the first backtrack.
Bill Polian changes his story
ESPN’s Don Van Natta Jr., who broke the initial news with his colleague Seth Wickersham, spoke with Polian in the aftermath of their story. It turns out that Polian’s not so sure whether or not he actually voted for Belichick. Though he can say with certainty that he did vote for Patriots owner Robert Kraft.
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And he acknowledged the existence of a campaign to make Belichick wait. But it wasn’t his idea.
In an interview with ESPN on Tuesday night, Polian denied telling fellow voters that Belichick should serve a one-year penance for Spygate. But he said he heard his fellow voters “float that idea” but he insisted he didn’t agree or disagree with the proposal.
Polian said he voted for Kraft and even spoke up on his behalf during the deliberations, saying Kraft had no knowledge of the Spygate scheme. Polian added that he could not remember with 100% certainty if he voted for Belichick, saying he was 95% sure he voted for the coach and a player, “most likely” L.C. Greenwood.
OK then.
Bill Polian isn’t certain whether or not he voted for Bill Belichick for the Hall of Fame.
(ASSOCIATED PRESS)
Bill Polian changes his story, again
Then on Wednesday, Polian read a written statement on SiriusXM NFL Radio confirming that he did in fact vote for Belichick and that it was confirmed by the Hall of Fame.
“I voted for coach Bleichick int he Hall of Fame selection meeting,” he said. “The Pro Football Hall of Fame has confirmed that fact through the auditors of the selection process. Again, I’ll state that I never said that I believe that coach Belichick should “wait a year” for enshrinement. This has been confirmed by the Pr Football Hall of Fame, numerous selectors who were in the room, and my vote for coach Belichick.
“As a Hall of Fame member and selector, I realize the import of what we do. I’ve always tried as a selector to make these difficult choices with the utmost of objectivity.”
Those answers aren’t readily available. But Polian put himself at the center of the storm as former players, fans and even Hall of Fame voters expressed dismay at Belichick not getting in despite contributing to eight Super Bowl-winning teams, six of them as the head coach of the Patriots.
Polian is one of 50 voters on this year’s Hall of Fame voting panel. Election to the Hall of Fame requires 40 of those 50 voters to cast a yes ballot, meaning that at least 11 voters voted against Belichick’s enshrinement.
Polian, apparently, isn’t among those “no” votes after all.
Bill Polian’s long history with Belichick’s Patriots
What is known about Polian is that he spent 12 seasons as the general manager and president of the Indianapolis Colts from 1998-2009. That spanned almost the entirety of the Peyton Manning era that produced repeated deep playoff runs and a Super Bowl championship after the 2006 season.
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The Colts’ chief rivals during that span were Belichick’s Patriots. And the Patriots got the best of them. While the Colts won one Super Bowl during Polian’s tenure, the Patriots won three. The teams played repeated high-stakes games in the regular season and playoffs in what’s widely considered one of the great rivalries in NFL history.
Polian pushed rule change after high-stakes loss to Patriots
One of those games was the 2003 AFC championship, in which the Patriots beat the Colts 24-14 en route to their second of three Super Bowl championships in four years. Manning thew four interceptions that day. And the Colts believed that officials allowed the Patriots to get away with repeated instances of contact and defensive holding.
Per an NBC report from 2005, Polian “clearly was seething after the game.” And as a member of the NFL’s competition committee, he helped push through changes that directed game officials to more closely enforce rules barring certain types of defensive contact with receivers more than 5 yards downfield.
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This became known in New England as the “Ty Law rule,” named after the famously physical and aggressive Patriots cornerback who intercepted Manning three times in that 2003 AFC championship. And it’s credited with dramatically changing how NFL officials call physical play in the secondary.
Per NBC, officials made 191 defensive illegal-contact in the 2004 regular season compared to 79 in the 2003 season prior to the Colts-Patriots championship game.
What about Spygate, Deflategate?
This was all before the Spygate and Deflategate scandals that were referenced in Tuesday’s ESPN report.
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Spygate took place during Polian’s tenure in 2007. It didn’t directly involve the Colts. Deflategate, meanwhile, came after Polian’s final 2009 season running the Colts’ front office. But it revolved around New England’s 45-7 win over the Colts in the 2014 AFC championship game in which the Patriots were found to have illegally used under-inflated balls, allegedly to their advantage.
And it sounds from ESPN’s report that Polian remains bitter about both.
Does any of this confirm that Polian pushed the agenda to make Belichick wait or is one of the 11-plus voters who didn’t vote for him? No. And he insisted that wasn’t the case again on Wednesday.
But Polian isn’t doing himself any favors with his explanations.
It’s late January, many MLB stadiums are submerged in snow, and Opening Day is two months away. Yet the best pitcher on Earth is actively trying to make history.
Tarik Skubal, the back-to-back American League Cy Young Award winner, is currently embroiled in a fascinating contract dispute with his employer, the Detroit Tigers. The 29-year-old hurler wants $32 million. The team would prefer to pay him $19 million. And while Skubal’s true, open-market value is closer to, and likely even beyond, the former number, MLB’s pre-free-agency salary scale caps his earning potential and complicates the conversation.
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When he hits free agency at the end of 2026, Skubal will command a staggering sum. He is just the 12th pitcher in MLB history to win a Cy Young in consecutive seasons. Since the start of 2024, Skubal’s 2.30 ERA is a third of a run lower than the next-lowest qualified tally (Zack Wheeler at 2.63). Only two other players (Cristopher Sánchez and Hunter Brown) are even under 3.00. Over that span, Skubal has the second-highest strikeout rate (31.2%) and third-lowest walk rate (4.5%) among qualified starters. No matter how you crunch the numbers, his greatness is difficult to debate.
But in the cattywampus world of MLB arbitration, debate is exactly what will happen.
To understand why Skubal’s situation is so noteworthy, one must first understand the convoluted world of “arb.” Here’s an oversimplified overview.
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When a player steps onto the diamond to make his MLB debut, he simultaneously starts a clock for control of his services. Depending on when in the season he debuts, a player is under team control for either six or seven seasons. For those first three seasons, big leaguers make the league minimum or close to it. There are various ways they can increase their earnings, but let’s not get trapped in the weeds here.
Entering Years 4, 5 and 6 in the majors, players gain eligibility for salary arbitration, a process that about 150 players go through each winter. In arbitration, agents negotiate salaries on players’ behalf until an early-January deadline. At that point, most players agree to terms with their clubs. The handful who don’t hurdle toward a hearing, with both the player and the team filing a salary number with the league office. After that, the two sides are permitted to continue discussing terms. However, some organizations maintain a policy referred to as “file-and-trial,” which, well, you’re probably smart enough to figure that out.
The arbitration hearing itself, usually conducted in late January or early February, is a bizarre, outdated ritual of corporate theater. In a nondescript hotel conference center or rented boardroom, representatives for the two parties state their cases in front of a three-person panel of independent arbitrators. That trio listens to the arguments from both sides and decides whether the player is worth a dollar above or a dollar below the financial midpoint. The result: The player is paid either his proposed sum or the team’s proposed sum. There is no in-between, no splitting the difference.
That means unless Skubal and the Tigers find common ground ahead of their hearing date, the ace’s 2026 contract will be either $19 million or $32 million. To be clear, both of those sums are livable wages. Skubal will be able to splurge for guac on his burrito bowl no matter what. But the difference is staggering.
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And the prevailing opinion around the industry is that Skubal and the Tigers will not settle before their hearing. Detroit is a file-and-trial team, though it made an exception last winter with hurler Casey Mize. Then again, the financial disparity in that circumstance — $25,000 — was relative peanuts compared to where things stand with Skubal.
His case’s $13 million gap, the largest ever in arbitration, is almost certainly unbridgeable. Skubal and his team are arguing from different ideological paradigms. A few phone calls between Tigers president of baseball operations Scott Harris and Skubal’s agent, Scott Boras, can’t untangle that reality.
Typically, final decisions rely entirely on comparables from the arbitration process, with judges comparing the player in question to players from previous seasons of a similar ilk, skill set and tenure. However, a rarely used clause in the collective bargaining agreement that allows players with “special accomplishments” to compare themselves to all players — not just previous arbitration-eligible players — likely emboldened Skubal and Boras to file such a large figure. It’s a huge ask, but Skubal’s back-to-back Cy Youngs would certainly qualify as “special accomplishments.”
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Skubal’s aggressive filing makes this case something of a toss-up, as a $32 million salary would break Juan Soto’s record for the highest salary ever for an arbitration-eligible player, at $31 million. The current record for a third-year-arb pitcher salary is $19.75 million, which, coincidentally, was given out by the Tigers to David Price in 2015. Accounting for inflation and Skubal’s superior track record, Detroit’s $19 million filing this go-around looks like a massive underpay.
Crucially, arbitration cases are based on a player’s previous year salary. Skubal made $10 million last season. A jump to $32 million would be, far and away, the largest year-over-year raise for a starter in arbitration history. That record is currently held by Jacob deGrom, who went from $7.4 million to $17 million in his final year of arbitration after winning the 2018 Cy Young. Through this lens, the arbitrators siding with Skubal would represent an enormous break from precedent.
Had the Tigers filed a few million higher or Skubal a few million lower, it might be easier to pick a winner. Obviously, that’s not what happened. The result is a $13 million mystery box.
Will this situation have a discernible impact on Skubal’s future in the Motor City? It’s possible, but not likely. Sometimes arbitration hearings foster bad blood between a player and a team; Corbin Burnes and the Brewers are a notable example. That’s understandable, considering the team is spending time, resources and energy to craft an argument centered on a player’s flaws.
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But usually, money fixes everything. Star first baseman Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and the Toronto Blue Jays went to a hearing before the 2024 season. Guerrero signed a 14-year, $500 million contract with Toronto the next year.
Barring injury, Skubal will enter free agency next winter and sign with whichever team offers him the biggest bag of riches. The outcome of his arbitration hearing won’t change that. That doesn’t mean Skubal vs. Detroit is important to only Skubal and Detroit.
If Skubal wins, it could dramatically alter future arbitration cases for frontline starters. For instance, Paul Skenes, the 2025 NL Cy Young winner, will enter his first year of arb next winter. How the judges rule on Skubal’s situation will surely impact how Skenes’ arbitration plays out. Both players are also on the MLB Players Association executive subcommittee, an eight-player group heavily involved in labor negotiations. Because Major League Baseball’s Labor Relations Department plays a large role in helping craft teams’ decisions ahead of arbitration, one could view Skubal’s face-off with Detroit as part of the larger discord between league and union.
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But the most tangible upshot of Skubal’s upcoming hearing is how it has left Detroit’s offseason in a total holding pattern. Multiple Yahoo Sports sources believe the Tigers are waiting to learn if Skubal will earn $19 million or $32 million this year before deciding whether to make additional expenditures this winter. That dynamic helps explain why Detroit, one win away from the ALCS last fall, has undertaken such an underwhelming offseason.
The Tigers extended a qualifying offer (one-year, $22.025 million) to second baseman Gleyber Torres, who accepted. Harris and Co. also re-signed reliever Kyle Finnegan to a two-year deal and added legendary closer Kenley Jansen and Drew Anderson, a former Phillies prospect coming off a stellar year in South Korea, on one-year contracts. Even in the transactionally inactive AL Central, that’s an unsatisfying haul.
Detroit’s organization remains in a healthy place. The Tigers — who appeared to be running away with the division in 2025 before a late-summer collapse — boast a quality batch of young position players, a dynamite bullpen and one of the better farm systems in baseball.
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And for all the drama swirling around his future, Skubal is still on the roster. No matter how his arbitration case turns out, no matter the price attached to his name, the Tigers should be more aggressive in crafting an unimpeachable roster around their generational talent. Detroit tumbled out of October the past two seasons despite a slew of iconic Skubal outings because the lineup wasn’t good enough.
Finding a way to upgrade that unit while Skubal is still around feels like a worthwhile course of action either way.
The U.S. men’s national team’s mark of progress is found not only with players on clubs competing in the UEFA Champions League but with them filling key roles in Europe’s top competition.
Featuring 18 matches kicking off simultaneously across the continent Wednesday, the dizzying final day of the 2025-26 league stage brought a two-goal performance from Bayer Leverkusen’s Malik Tillman and starting assignments for five other Americans.
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With places in the knockout stage hanging in the balance, five clubs employing U.S. World Cup roster candidates secured passage to the last 24 while two were knocked out.
None finished in the top eight, which would’ve earned a bye directly to the Round of 16. Tillman, Weston McKennie (Juventus), Johnny Cardoso (Atlético Madrid), Yunus Musah (Atalanta) and Folarin Balogun (Monaco) will compete in two-leg playoffs Feb. 17-18 and 24-25.
Sergiño Dest (PSV Eindhoven) and Tim Weah (Olympique Marseille) were eliminated — the latter’s club on goal differential when Anatoliy Trubin, Benfica’s goalkeeper, headed in a free kick near the end of stoppage time for a 4-2 home victory over Real Madrid.
Had that match ended 3-2, Weah’s Marseille would’ve gone through. The French team had only itself to blame, though, after losing in Belgium to Club Brugge 3-0. In his sixth Champions League start, Weah played 90 minutes.
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The brightest performance came from Tillman, the 23-year-old attacking midfielder making his fifth Champions League start of the eight-game campaign. He charged Bayer Leverkusen’s 3-0 home victory over Villarreal with a sterling first half.
Using high pressure in the 12th minute, he pursued goalkeeper Arnau Tenas into the 6-yard box and deflected the attempted clearance into the net. Twenty-three minutes later, Tillman smashed in a wicked half-volley from the top of the penalty area.
The goals were his first in the Champions League since November 2024, when, while with PSV Eindhoven, he scored twice against Shakhtar Donetsk and once against Girona.
Tillman’s standing with the national team has dipped and risen since coach Mauricio Pochettino took the helm in October 2024. Last summer, his stock rose at the Concacaf Gold Cup with three goals and two assists in six starts for the runner-up Americans.
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In the only match pitting Americans against each other Wednesday, McKennie and Balogun went the distance during a 0-0 draw.
Of late, both players had been sensational in the Champions League. McKennie’s streak of goals in three consecutive matches ended Wednesday, and Balogun had scored in three straight before hitting a two-game drought.
Dest played 90 minutes for PSV, whose 2-1 home loss to second-place Bayern Munich sent it tumbling to 28th place and out of the competition.
In his first Champions League start in more than four months, Musah was replaced seven minutes into the second half as part of a triple switch during a 1-0 loss at Belgium’s Union Saint-Gilloise.
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Cardoso was the only U.S. player who didn’t start. In his third Champions League appearance of the season, he entered in the 64th minute of a 2-1 home loss to Norway’s Bodø/Glimt.
Thursday in the second-tier Europa League, U.S. midfielder Tanner Tessmann and first-place Olympique Lyonnais will attempt to clinch the top seed in the knockout stage when the French club hosts Greece’s PAOK.
Center back Auston Trusty and Celtic are clinging to the 24th and final place in the next round ahead of its critical finale at home against Dutch side Utrecht.
Having arrived in Canton, Ohio to attend the Pro Football Hall of Fame enshrinement of former Patriots cornerback Ty Law, Belichick combed over the Hall’s historic collections for the better part of an entire weekend. He studied exhibits, archives and videos, spending hours in between with staff asking and answering questions. He then wandered through a vast expanse of bronze busts and plaques telling the story of how football has been shaped over more than a century.
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That same visit, Belichick shared his Canton love affair with his football team, bringing his players and staff in for a tour before heading to meet the Detroit Lions for a joint practice.
These were the kind of pilgrimages Belichick made during his youth, when he’d visit the Hall of Fame with his father, Steve, a former player, coach and scout who imparted upon Bill a granular reverence for football. Steve is in those HOF archives, written into history by virtue of one season with the Lions as a fullback in 1941. Someday, Bill will be enshrined among those busts, too.
As we have learned this week, that bust reportedly won’t be going up this summer. Belichick inexplicably missed the HOF cut on his first ballot appearance, failing to attain the necessary 40 of 50 votes for enshrinement. That means if Patriots owner Robert Kraft gets his much coveted “door knock” next week in Santa Clara, California, informing him of his entrance into the Hall, it will be an honor that came at the expense of leaving Belichick’s doorway silent.
Kraft may be in. Belichick apparently isn’t. And that could end up depriving both of one last jointly shared football victory. It’s a moment that, frankly, might have been able to douse the smoldering mess between them and heal some wounds. Now it threatens to become the deepest cut, with Kraft potentially going into the Hall of Fame ahead of Belichick and quarterback Tom Brady, the two biggest football architects of a shared Patriots dynasty.
In reality, he may end up with a monumentally unfair opportunity at extending an extraordinary olive branch here. Not one that he asked for and not one that he should be burdened with. Certainly not one that anyone in football should expect. But it’s there nonetheless: If the Hall of Fame beckons him next week, Kraft could accept the honor, but decline his enshrinement until he and Belichick can enter together.
It would be an unprecedented moment in NFL history, of course. And also completely implausible and preposterous considering the rift that has developed between Kraft and Belichick. Not to mention an act of pure grace that would be cleaning up a vote that is being admonished by a multitude of HOF selectors.
Robert Kraft on Bill Belichick: “Whatever perceptions may exist about any personal differences between Bill and me, I strongly believe Bill Belichick’s record and body of work speak for themselves.” (Photo by Matthew J. Lee/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)
(Boston Globe via Getty Images)
It would also be remarkable. To the point of elevating Kraft in a way that wins and trophies can’t.
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It’s not often we see NFL team owners deprive themselves of something they want. If anything, it’s the opposite, with their riches punctuated by superyachts, palatial homes, private jets, political influence, powerful friends and so many other lavish trappings of billionaire wealth. And to be fair, some extremely generous philanthropy, too. Kraft is among the league’s elite when it comes to giving, reportedly to nearly the tune of a billion dollars spread among multiple charities, foundations, causes and other well-intentioned pursuits. But league history has never seen a Hall of Fame candidate hit the pause button when presented with football immortality. It simply doesn’t happen. And if that’s not the kind of gesture from Kraft that could repair a rift with Belichick, one that was created and instigated by both men, then there isn’t a meaningful peace to be had between the two.
“Whatever perceptions may exist about any personal differences between Bill and me, I strongly believe Bill Belichick’s record and body of work speak for themselves,” Kraft said. “As head coach of the New England Patriots for more than two decades, he set the standard for on-field excellence, preparation, and sustained success in the free agency and salary cap era of the National Football League. He is the greatest coach of all time and he unequivocally deserves to be a unanimous first-ballot Pro Football Hall of Famer.”
Brady, who has also had some chilly moments with Belichick, echoed the sentiments during an appearance on Seattle sports radio, telling the “Brock & Salk” show that “no coach” should be a first-ballot Hall of Famer if Belichick isn’t.
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“I don’t understand it,” Brady said Wednesday. “I was with him every day. If he’s not a first ballot Hall of Famer, there’s really no coach that ever should be a first-ballot Hall of Famer. Which is completely ridiculous because people deserve it. He’s incredible. There’s no coach I’d rather play for.”
“In the end, he’s going to get into the Hall of Fame,” Brady added. “I’m not worried about that. A lot of times in life — for all of life, for all of us, things don’t happen exactly how you want them or on your timeline. We’ll all be there to celebrate him when it does happen and he’s going to have a huge turnout from so many players, coaches, that appreciate everything that he did, and the commitment that he made to winning, and the impact that he had on our lives.”
While it means something to have Kraft and Brady endorse him, it would have been more meaningful to see the coach and franchise owner enter into the Hall of Fame together. Not for the gawking at potential awkwardness between them, but to memorialize what they achieved together. And to give each of them a moment to once again share an honor that is theirs individually but also collectively. To put on gold jackets that they earned for each other.
Whether Kraft gets in first or not, that’s a celebration they can still have. And maybe the squashing of differences comes through the passage of time and the opportunity to pay tribute to each other. First with Kraft honoring Belichick in his speech and then next with the team owner welcoming Belichick into the Hall of Fame next year. And then, in 2028, with both men welcoming Brady together.
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Given how much Kraft has wanted this honor, that’s likely the way this will go — with Kraft getting in and then advocating for voters to fix the mistake they made with Belichick. But there’s still a chance here for him to elevate himself in league and football history that would be unprecedented.
If he has the votes for entry, Kraft pausing his own enshrinement might be the gesture that meaningfully and forever repairs his relationship with Belichick. A forever moment for both — and for the Patriots — that’s worth the wait.
Matt Harmon and Justin Boone are back for another episode of the pod and to remind you that what happens in the NFL postseason matters for the 2026 fantasy season. The two share their biggest takeaways from the postseason that matter for the upcoming fantasy season. Harmon and Boone also dive into the fantasy mailbag to answer all your ‘Dynasty Debate’ questions.
(3:00) – Pod programming note: Yahoo Fantasy Forecast is going to the Super Bowl
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(6:15) 6 Playoff Takeaways for 2026 Fantasy Season
(38:40) Dynasty Debates Pt. 1
(49:30) Dynasty Debates Pt. 2
Matt Harmon and Justin Boone are back for another episode of the pod and to remind you that what happens in the NFL postseason matters for the 2026 fantasy season. The two share their biggest takeaways from the postseason that matter for the upcoming fantasy season. Harmon and Boone also dive into the fantasy mailbag to answer all your ‘Dynasty Debate’ questions.
